James comes up big when it counts
LeBron James #6 of the Miami Heat puts up a shot against the Knicks during Game Three of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. (May 3, 2012) Credit: Jim McIsaac
The message from LeBron James at yesterday morning's shootaround was kind but firm. After congratulating Miami teammate Chris Bosh on the birth of his son, James told reporters that Bosh had better hightail it back to New York because "this is a big game."
For three quarters of Thursday night's 87-70 win over the Knicks, it looked as though James forgot to send the "big-game" memo to himself. It looked as though he, not Bosh, had been the player who spent the last 24 hours flying back and forth between Miami and New York and holding his wife's hand in a delivery room.
But then James did something that has long been the measure of the greatest competitors: He came up big when his team needed him. James scored 17 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter to give the Heat a 3-0 series lead and put the Knicks on the brink of elimination.
"He made some big, big plays," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of James, who scored his team's first eight points of the fourth quarter.
James, who has had some big games at the Garden, looked to be headed for a rare clunker early on. Through the first three quarters, he had 15 points and shot 3-for-9. He also had seven turnovers and four personal fouls, forcing him to spend a good chunk of the third quarter on the bench.
James lost his composure several times during the game, to the delight of Madison Square Garden fans who serenaded him with an obscene chant throughout the game. James' lowest moment came in the second quarter when he barked at Mario Chalmers after he didn't make the right cut on a pass by James that went out of bounds. Chalmers yelled back at him, firing up the crowd even more.
It was a bizarre, unexpected showing for someone who performed well in the first two games of the series and repeatedly has said the Garden is his favorite place to play other than AmericanAirlines Arena.
James had looked to be the picture of calm before the game as he sat near his locker reading the autobiography of Jerry West, "West by West." Judging from the first three quarters of the game, he should have been reading a book called "South," because that's where his game went until he came back fired up to start the final quarter.
James opened the fourth with eight unanswered points: a three-pointer, a put-back of his own miss and another three. That gave the Heat a 66-56 lead with 10:37 left. It was a demoralizing show of force, and the Knicks lacked the firepower and composure to recover.
"I just wanted to make plays and try to help our team win," James said. "I'm not a guy who's in foul trouble a lot. It was difficult for me to sit down early in the third."
Spoelstra thinks the game was a growing experience for James and the entire team. Said Spoelstra: "LeBron just has to stay with it. Things weren't necessarily going well. He made some mistakes. He has a lot of excuses not to keep his head in the second half, but instead he was able to come back with four fouls and make big plays." And make them when it mattered.
